1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device to encourage the wearing of automobile seatbelts. More particularly, the invention comprises a system of indicators specifically displaying which occupant of a vehicle does not have his or her seat fastened, the indicators being visible outside the vehicle to aid law enforcement agencies in the enforcement of seat belt statutes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Each year, lives are lost in motor vehicle accidents because one or more occupants were not wearing a seat belt. The advent of air bags and other passive restraint devices has helped this situation but still, air bags in and of themselves do not provide complete protection of the vehicle driver or passenger(s) in the event of a collision. Because of the overwhelming evidence that seatbelts do save lives, many states have passed mandatory seat belt laws with fines for non-compliance. For whatever the reasons, many people still do not "buckle up" before departing in a motor vehicle. Because law enforcement officials have no easy way to insure that all vehicle occupants are wearing seatbelts, there is far too often disregard of the seat belt laws.
Many ideas have been proposed to solve this problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,874,474 for METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DETECTING THE UTILIZATION OF A VEHICLE SAFETY BELT; issued Apr. 1, 1975 to Norman G. Quantz, teaches a system for detecting the occupancy of a seat and the state of the seat belt (i.e., buckled or unbuckled). An unspecified signal is presented to a "utilization device". Quantz, however, provides no indication of how many or which seat belts remain unfastened and, in addition, provides no signal visible outside the vehicle indicating that one or more seat belts associated with occupied seats remain unfastened.
In contradistinction, the instant invention provides indicators at each seatbelt buckle showing the status of that particular seatbelt. In addition, signals specifically indicating which seatbelts remain unfastened are provided to both the vehicle driver and, externally, to following motorists, such as law enforcement personnel.
Another seat occupancy sensing system is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,473 for SENSING SYSTEM FOR SENSING STATE OF WEAR OF SEATBELT; issued Aug. 5, 1975 to Atushi Ueda, et al. The Ueda, et al. system provides for switch contacts within the seat structure for sensing occupancy but still provides no seat-specific information regarding the fastened/unfastened status of individual seat belts.
The inventive system, on the other hand, provides seat-specific information regarding the status of each seatbelt in the vehicle. This information is displayed in a manner observable by a trailing motorist such as a law enforcement officer.
Another approach to the problem of encouraging the wearing of seat belts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,645 for SEAT BELT SYSTEM WITH STARTER ENGINE LOCK AND ALARM; issued Aug. 15, 1978 to Donald J. Lewis, et al. Lewis et al. teach a system wherein if a vehicle's front seat is occupied but the occupant has not fastened his or her seatbelt, the engine can not be started and, in addition, an alarm is sounded. Lewis et al., however, provide no visual indication of a seatbelt buckle's status either at the buckle, at the driver's region of the dashboard, or at a location viewable from outside the vehicle.
Finally, Japanese Patent No. JP361009360(a) for SETTING CHECKER FOR SEAT BELT, issued January, 1998 to Isuke Hzuka, et al. teaches an indicator lamp outside the vehicle body which is illuminated if a vehicle occupant has not fastened his or her seatbelt. Hzuka et al. do not teach a system indicating which vehicle occupant or occupants do not have their seatbelts fastened, but rather provide a single visual indication outside the vehicle. Neither do they teach the use of individual indicators at each seatbelt buckle.
In each one of these prior art inventions, some form of seatbelt monitoring is disclosed. Some included general indicators which show that at least one seatbelt is not fastened. No combination of this or any other prior art known to the Applicant provides any visual indication of the status of individual seatbelts, either inside or outside the vehicle.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to either describe or render obvious the instant invention as claimed.